Underneath the Legality of Corruption: A Review of the Politics of Plunder by Belinda Aquino

For the longest time, we were only made to know in vague terms up to what extent did the Marcos family looted from the Filipino people – that it is many. But Aquino’s book writes about how much and in detail how Marcos’ plunder unraveled consisting of facts and documents serving as her primary resource.

Aquino started the book by unmasking Marcos. She said that it is not only corruption that he committed but also plunder. The Marcos regime have made thousands of dummy accounts to hide the huge amount of wealth they have amassed from the people. In her words, Aquino described it as a kleptocracy. The next chapter then expounded on the meaning of corruption – how it is viewed and given meaning differently all over the world. It is interesting to note as well that she discussed how the Philippines as a Third World country has been culturally embedded with corruption. This partly explains not just its existence but also its prevalence. And as more and more pages are being turned over, so are the crimes committed. It has become as vast and big that to repay the debt we had, Marcos kept on borrowing some more. The death/debt trap our country entered into because of their personal greed resulted to the large debts our great grandchildren would be left to pay still.

As if their family instigating corruption on their own was not enough, Marcos dragged his so-called cronies into it as well. He generously rewarded them with state enterprises, government loans, dummy companies, kickbacks and commissions. He and his cronies were also known to have purchased expensive real estate abroad through the use of offshore corporations and surrogates. Aside from this, he also took over most big business like MERALCO and the ISSM or Iligan Integrated Steel Mills. Profits from these recently government-acquired corporations were not properly accounted and is believed to have been spent by the Marcoses. Their complicated web of secrecy was hard to unravel because it was done so carefully that it bore the face of legality. Aquino explains in its succeeding chapter how the greed of both Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos exceeded normal proportions that they were able to accumulate an overwhelming amount of wealth. Ferdinand’s messianic complex and Imelda’s edifice complex coupled with relative deprivation catapulted them both to power and corruption.

Fortunately, after his dictatorship, the Presidential Commission on Good Governance was made to recover, sequester and investigate the wealth that the Marcoses and their cronies have acquired. Aquino laments at the end that the recovery and the continued corruption would be impossible to eradicate by one institution alone. And the challenge to bring down the extreme levels of corruption rests with the Aquino government that followed after the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship.

 Closely examining her book, one can clearly point out how she gathered her data. In the inserted bibliographies after every chapter and the appendix, data was obtained through collection of written lawsuits, confidential data, monographs and news articles. Her qualitative method of research composed of textual analysis. From numbers she obtained in the documents, she generated words. Aquino used ethnomethodology, thematic and discourse analysis through an inductive approach in zeroing in on her contextual data and interpreting how and why our government under 20 years of Marcos rule was under moribundity. This is the very reason that we’ve come to the conclusion that Marcos and his family stole a lot from the Filipinos and what led them in doing so.

But if I were to criticize Aquino in her research methodology, I find it lacking. No variety of methods were used. Though interviews were present, they were scarce and they came from newspapers. One might find it overwhelming that she was able to use primary sources such as signed letters, official documents, contracts and articles that establishes the credibility of the book but in a nutshell, it seemed to just be a detailed and descriptive compiled reading of accounts of their plunder. Clearly, the objective of the book was the exposé of their corruption which she successfully achieves. But after answering the whats, whys and hows of the monumental debauchery of the Marcoses, it leaves no room for answering the question of “what now?”.  

That is where the millennial generation comes into picture. Written at a time after Martial Law, the Cory Aquino administration was the answer to the call for action. But after many administrations and with a looming Marcos and Arroyo mix prototype sitting as the new president, we could not help but take into our hands the duty of answering that question. Outdated and obsolete as it may seem, history repeats itself. Lest we forget, the heroes and martyrs of martial law died for the future to live. And while Aquino’s book maybe exciting for someone who is into facts and numbers or overwhelming to those who only have an idea of his massive looting or maybe boring (depending on the reader) with the numerous numbers and long list of names, it still serves as a valuable resource and reference for the vast extent of corruption that the Marcos dictatorship committed. If we were to keep up with the times and rebrand it, an infographic which is easy to read and understand can be generated especially with attention economics coming into play.

In conclusion, Marcos have extensively corrupted and plundered during his dictatorship and what’s making it more disappointing is that he hid it so well that it looked legitimate through his offshore accounts that we are finding it difficult to recover the people’s money. Aquino though lacking at some parts have written an in-depth and detailed accounts about the per-item plunder of not only him but his wife and his cronies. It opened the eyes of its readers but unfortunately only stops there. It did not solicit any plan of action afterwards that we need to continue to charge the Marcoses and collect what they have taken from millions of Filipinos – not just billions worth of money but also the lives that we cannot bring back. And most of all, to never forget. To not move on but move forward, lighting up the darkness with their fire.